Engineering Cellular and Molecular Immunity in Cancer
Event details
| Date | 03.04.2014 |
| Hour | 09:30 |
| Speaker | Gregory Lee Szeto, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (USA) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
Abstract:
The immune system is a unique physiological system charged with protecting us from external and internal challenges, and plays a crucial role in innumerable diseases and maintaining healthy homeostasis. Its structure and function require a complex, decentralized network composed of a multitude of decision-making processes that span spatiotemporal scales, from molecules to cells to tissues to the entire organism. Engineering principles can help improve our understanding of how immune decision-making works by 1) enabling new mechanistic understanding by identifying critical components and dynamics that maintain health or drive disease and 2) providing more rational ways to modulate immune decision-making, thus improving the design and efficacy of immune-based therapeutic intervention.
In this seminar, I will describe how engineering principles and technologies can be used to conceptualize a more structured framework for researching mechanisms and modulation strategies in immune decision-making. Two current examples from my research program will be presented with applications focused on cancer immunosuppression: 1) a biomaterials-based approach to ask and answer novel mechanistic questions about the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in early tumor establishment and control of tumor-immune interactions in the tumor microenvironment and 2) the development of an integrated process using engineering platforms and technologies (specifically a microfluidics device and a molecularly engineered, cell membrane-anchoring stimulus) to create a more efficient, bedside cell-based vaccine using B cells as antigen presenting cells.
Bio:
Gregory Lee Szeto, Ph.D. is currently an NIH NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow (formerly a Ragon Institute Postdoctoral Fellow) in the laboratory of Darrell J. Irvine, co-advised by Douglas A. Lauffenburger, at MIT.
His long-term research interests are driven by one critical question: "How does the immune system make decisions based on complex signal integration?"
Leveraging his knowledge of immunology and HIV, Dr. Szeto is currently focused on 1) application of systems biology to traditional and novel immune assay platforms to improve our understanding of the immune system focusing on cell network behaviors and modeling, 2) elucidating mechanisms of immunosuppression in murine models of cancer and vaccination using biomaterials, 3) the coordinated regulation of innate and adaptive immunity, particularly focusing on innate signaling in B cells, 4) the use of nanotechnology for basic immunology and immunotherapy, particularly focused on biosensors and assay platforms.
Born in Waldorf, Maryland, Dr. Szeto earned bachelor's degrees in Chemical and Biomedical and Health Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004. In 2010, he completed his PhD under the mentorship of Janice E. Clements at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Dr. Szeto's graduate work characterized the immunmodulatory and anti-HIV actions of the antibiotic minocycline in human CD4+ T cells. This line of inquiry culminated in the elucidation of a novel molecular mechanism for minocycline's effects on T cell activation: suppression of the transcription factor NFAT1. These studies formed the basis for a novel use of minocycline as both an anti-HIV agent, and an immunmodulatory therapy targeting T cell activation.
Previously, Dr. Szeto performed research under Xiao Xiao at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center developing AAV-based viral vectors for gene therapy, Steven X. Hou at NCI-Frederick working on a P-element insertion screen to uncover novel essential genes in Drosophila, and D. Keith Wilson at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland working on a Matlab-based user interface for predicting the effects of atmosphere and local terrain using advanced sound propagation models.
Speaker's personal web page
Abstract:
The immune system is a unique physiological system charged with protecting us from external and internal challenges, and plays a crucial role in innumerable diseases and maintaining healthy homeostasis. Its structure and function require a complex, decentralized network composed of a multitude of decision-making processes that span spatiotemporal scales, from molecules to cells to tissues to the entire organism. Engineering principles can help improve our understanding of how immune decision-making works by 1) enabling new mechanistic understanding by identifying critical components and dynamics that maintain health or drive disease and 2) providing more rational ways to modulate immune decision-making, thus improving the design and efficacy of immune-based therapeutic intervention.
In this seminar, I will describe how engineering principles and technologies can be used to conceptualize a more structured framework for researching mechanisms and modulation strategies in immune decision-making. Two current examples from my research program will be presented with applications focused on cancer immunosuppression: 1) a biomaterials-based approach to ask and answer novel mechanistic questions about the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in early tumor establishment and control of tumor-immune interactions in the tumor microenvironment and 2) the development of an integrated process using engineering platforms and technologies (specifically a microfluidics device and a molecularly engineered, cell membrane-anchoring stimulus) to create a more efficient, bedside cell-based vaccine using B cells as antigen presenting cells.
Bio:
Gregory Lee Szeto, Ph.D. is currently an NIH NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow (formerly a Ragon Institute Postdoctoral Fellow) in the laboratory of Darrell J. Irvine, co-advised by Douglas A. Lauffenburger, at MIT.
His long-term research interests are driven by one critical question: "How does the immune system make decisions based on complex signal integration?"
Leveraging his knowledge of immunology and HIV, Dr. Szeto is currently focused on 1) application of systems biology to traditional and novel immune assay platforms to improve our understanding of the immune system focusing on cell network behaviors and modeling, 2) elucidating mechanisms of immunosuppression in murine models of cancer and vaccination using biomaterials, 3) the coordinated regulation of innate and adaptive immunity, particularly focusing on innate signaling in B cells, 4) the use of nanotechnology for basic immunology and immunotherapy, particularly focused on biosensors and assay platforms.
Born in Waldorf, Maryland, Dr. Szeto earned bachelor's degrees in Chemical and Biomedical and Health Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004. In 2010, he completed his PhD under the mentorship of Janice E. Clements at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Dr. Szeto's graduate work characterized the immunmodulatory and anti-HIV actions of the antibiotic minocycline in human CD4+ T cells. This line of inquiry culminated in the elucidation of a novel molecular mechanism for minocycline's effects on T cell activation: suppression of the transcription factor NFAT1. These studies formed the basis for a novel use of minocycline as both an anti-HIV agent, and an immunmodulatory therapy targeting T cell activation.
Previously, Dr. Szeto performed research under Xiao Xiao at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center developing AAV-based viral vectors for gene therapy, Steven X. Hou at NCI-Frederick working on a P-element insertion screen to uncover novel essential genes in Drosophila, and D. Keith Wilson at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland working on a Matlab-based user interface for predicting the effects of atmosphere and local terrain using advanced sound propagation models.
Speaker's personal web page
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- Prof. Melody Swartz